CBRE Ltd has released their fourth quarter stats for Toronto's office rental market. CBRE examines both the financial core as well as suburban office markets in order to provide information regarding economic health and vacancy rates, as well as news regarding new developments.

The Financial Core vacancy rate decreased from 5.1% to 4.6% (quarter-over-quarter).

Toronto's Core, image by Craig White

The current trend is migration to the financial core and flight-to-quality (i.e. tenants moving from Class “B” to Class “A” buildings). Most recently, Zurich leased 90,000 SF at First Canadian Place (moving from 400 University), and Laurentian Bank leased 160,000 SF at Commerce Court West (moving from 1 Toronto Street, College Park and 130 Adelaide Street West).

Commerce Court West has experienced a dramatic turnaround. Ten months ago, 20 floors were available for lease. All floors have since been leased or are under option. Notable transactions included Laurentian Bank, Chubb, Equinox and Inmet Mining.

Eight new office towers are currently under construction or redevelopment downtown (i.e. south of Bloor). The most recent announcements are: 1 York Street (to be anchored by HOOPP - 132,000 SF) and 100 Adelaide Street West (Ernst & Young – 225,000 SF).

The new office buildings will total 5.6M SF and will add 10% to the existing downtown stock. The completion dates range from 2014 to 2017.